Greenbelt, MD – Christopher Harris Speights, age 35, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, pleaded guilty to Production of Child Pornography and Attempted Production of Child Pornography.
The guilty plea was announced by Acting United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Stephen M. Schenning; Superintendent of the Maryland State Police, Colonel William M. Pallozzi; Special Agent in Charge Andre Watson of ICE Homeland Security Investigations; Attorney General of Maryland Brian E. Frosh; and Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela D. Alsobrooks.
According to his plea agreement, on December 13, 2016, the Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Unit received a referral from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and began an investigation into the production and possession of images depicting the sexual exploitation of minors associated with a specific Internet Protocol address. Further investigation revealed that the sexually exploitive images were associated with Speights’ residence. On April 20, 2017, Maryland State Police troopers and Homeland Security Investigations agents executed a search and seizure warrant at Speights’ residence.
According to court documents, Speights confirmed that he was a permanent substitute, working full-time, at Bradbury Heights Elementary school, located in Capitol Heights, Prince George’s County, Maryland. Speights also confirmed that he coached boys youth basketball with a traveling team.
Speights admitted to possessing child pornography on the iPad recovered from his residence, and to surreptitiously filming some of the minors he coached while the minors were staying in North Carolina for a basketball team trip in March 2016. Speights placed his backpack in the hotel room’s bathroom, with his iPad video recording from a hole in the exterior mesh pocket of the backpack. Speights video recorded the exposed genitals of 11-year-old boys without their knowledge. Speights produced an additional image on December 14, 2015, which depicts him fondling a minor male while he was chaperoning a Bradbury Heights fifth grade class trip.
Maryland State Police conducted a digital forensic analysis of media devices recovered from Speights’ home. Law enforcement determined that Speights adopted the online identity of fictitious minor females and males, then solicited boys online to produce images of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct and transmit those images via social media. According to the plea agreement, Speights (under the assumed online identity) specifically threatened minor boys on more than one occasion that if they did not comply with hIis demands for creating and sending images of themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct, he would tell “Coach Speights” about the inappropriate online conversations.
As a result of the investigation, law enforcement was able to positively identify over 20 minors from whom Speights requested images of sexually explicit conduct. According to the plea agreement, law enforcement was further able to identify three different dates where Speights produced images of himself engaging in sexual contact with a minor male victim.
Speights faces a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm has scheduled sentencing for July 11, 2018 at 2:30 p.m.
Acting United States Attorney Stephen M. Schenning commended Maryland State Police and Homeland Security Investigations for their work in the investigation. Mr. Schenning thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Hagan and Lindsay Kaplan who are prosecuting the case.